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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Searching the Web: a survey of EXCITE users
Author Spink, A., Bateman, J., Jansen, B. J.
Source Internet Research, 9, 2, pp. 117-128
Year 1999
Access date 19.08.2004
Abstract Web search services are now a major source of information for a growing number of people. We need to know more about how users search Web search engines to improve the effectiveness of their information retrieval. This paper reports results from a major study exploring users' information searching behavior on the EXCITE Web search engine. The study is the first to investigate Web users' successive searching behavior as they conduct related searches over time on the same or evolving topic. A total of 316 EXCITE users responded to an interactive survey accessed through EXCITE's homepage. Users provided information on their search topics, intended query terms, search frequency for information on their topic, and demographic data. Results show that when searching the Web: users tend to employ simple search strategies; and often conduct more than one search (successive searches) over time to find information related to a particular topic. Implications for the design of Web search services are discussed.
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Year of publication1999
Bibliographic typeJournal article
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Web survey bibliography - 1999 (45)